School: Attymass B.

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1. The Old Schools and Schoolmasters (continued)

   

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   Where the confession box is now, there used be a fire when the pupils used be in the church learning. After second Mass every Sunday my great grandfather, Pat Ferguson, used be teaching catechism out of Kerwin's Irish catechism. There were many teaching places throughout the parish. Before the Attymass National School was built there was an old thatched schoolhouse in Michael Hughes' garden. The pupils were expected to bring a bundle of straw to thatch the school once every year. They had also to bring a penny each to pay the fee of the man who would be hired for thatching.

   In the winter time also, every scholar had to bring a sod under each arm every morning, as long as the cold and rainy season lasted. They had to show the sods to the schoolmaster each morning and if they failed to bring them they had to bear two severe slaps of a strong warpy rod and had then to bring four sods the next morning. The fire place was low and narrow with no chimney on top except the smoke surging out through a Poll-Deataigh.

   When the National School was built the inspector visited the school once every year. That was at the end of September. The new classes would not be arranged until the results would return and then every pupil that would pass would be promoted.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. schools (~4,094)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Martin Ferguson

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   John Groark

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   81

   Address

   Treanoughter, Co. Mayo